Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Senator has identified something that is really important for Ireland and I thank her for doing so. The cyber attack on the HSE did get a lot of attention and people understood. It was not long after this that people were receiving phone calls to their mobiles looking for payment for an e-flow tag, for example. It was fraud, basically, and it was the acquisition of personal data by an attack on the HSE that stored people's personal data. One could see a sort of cause and effect. I always felt that people did not actually feel the impact quite as much as they might have done because it was happening at the same time as Covid. While there was this extraordinary disruption to the health service, if people had their appointments cancelled or there was disruption it was not exactly clear if that was a consequence of Covid or whether it was the attack on the HSE. I felt it got slightly masked. I am not saying that this is a good thing but had it happened at a time other than during Covid perhaps people would have seen the cause and effect more directly. That is important but it highlights that we have already been under attack and it was not the only time. There have been other attacks some of which got into the media and some of which have just been dealt with by our National Cyber Security Centre. It would be a really good idea to get a briefing with them at the earliest opportunity. I really admire the work that they do. We need to support them and continue to invest in them. They are moving to new premises. They have a programme and a body of work but there is no question that we should be fully behind the work they are trying to do to protect the State and to protect assets, companies and individuals within the State. This was very clear to me when I met the cyber security team in Tallinn. Their exact title is the NATO Cooperative Defence Centre of Excellence. It is a combination of EU and NATO expertise working together to try to-----